Chapter LXXVIII: Act III

SC. 1. "Thanks, gentle uncle. Come, _my_ lords, away,
To fight with Glendower and his complices."

With Theobald, I am dubious of the last line. The scene would end better with the couplet, and Glendower is not mentioned anywhere else in the play. A little higher up in the scene, however, a line intervenes between two rimes.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Barloughly Castle call they this at hand?--
Yea, my lord. How brooks your grace the air."

For 'Yea,' we should read _Even so_. Introd. p. 68.

* * * * *

"In murders and in outrage bloody here."

As 4to 1597 reads _bouldy_ for 'bloody', the reading of the other 4tos and the folio, the right reading would seem to be _boldly_.

* * * * *

"Strive to speak big and clap their female joints
In stiff unwieldy arms."

Pope reads _clasp_ and Collier's folio _feeble_, which seem to be better.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Your Grace mistakes _me_; only to be brief,
Left I his title out."

* * * * *

"Had been so brief with you to shorten you,
For taking so the head, your whole head's length."

We should read _off_ for 'so' suggested by that in the preceding line.

* * * * *

"That any harm should stain so fair a show."

The folios of both Collier and Singer read _storm_ for 'harm.'

* * * * *

SC. 4. "And I could sing, would weeping do me good,
And never borrow any tear of thee."

We should either read _weep_ for 'sing' or _singing_ for 'weeping.' Pope, who is generally followed, read _weep_. I prefer _singing_; so also does Staunton.

* * * * *

"But stay, _girl_, hëre come the gardeners."

She had already called her 'girl' twice.

* * * * *

"As we this garden. At time of year _we cut_
And wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees."

In the first line something is wanting at the end in both 4tos and folio; in the second the 4tos read 'Do wound,' and those who follow them read '_We_ at time of year.' I prefer the reading of the folio, adding _we cut_. If we follow the 4tos, we should read perhaps 'year _we still_.' The expression 'time of year,' _i.e._ spring (?) occurs in one of the Sonnets of Thomas Watson (1581?): "And time of year reviveth everything."

* * * * *

"Their fruits of duty. _The_ superfluous branches."

So also S. Walker; 2nd folio reads _All_.

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "I heard you say that you had rather refuse
The offer of an hundred thousand crowns
Than Bolingbroke's return to England."

This is nonsense, and the last line is unmetrical. A verb is evidently lost; if we read 'Than _to see_,' or 'Than _see proud_,' all becomes clear.

* * * * *

"Of good old Abraham. _My_ Lords Appellants."

* * * * *

"Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown.
Here cousin, on this side my hand; and on that side yours."

Some reject, as a needless repetition, which destroys the metre, the 'Here cousin' in the second line; but it serves to mark the impatience of the King.